Nirav Modi, Mallya fled India due to agencies' delay in arrest, says court

Businessmen involved in multi-million dollar scams, such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, were able to flee the country because probe agencies failed to arrest them at the proper time, a special court here said recently. Special judge M G Deshpande made the remark while hearing a plea of an accused booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking modification in his bail condition. The court on May 29 accepted the plea of Vyomesh Shah, an accused in a money laundering case, to drop the bail condition of getting the court's prior permission to travel abroad. The detailed order was made available recently. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had argued that allowing Shah's application would give rise to situations like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi. Rejecting the probe agency's contention, the judge said, "I thoughtfully examined this argument and felt it necessary to note that all these persons fled because of the failure of the investigating